241:. The River Tawe was already being polluted by the coal mining industry and suffered badly. Even worse affected was the stream that meandered through the lower half of the valley, the Nant y Fendrod. Records about the history of this stream are sparse but it appears likely that for over 100 years most of the water was taken from this stream to be used in industry and its channel became the repository of much of the liquid waste from the various industries. In addition rainfall seeping through the growing waste tips added further burdens of by-products and waste materials.
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Today the area is in the final stages of regeneration. Modern
Industrial units and housing has replaced the pollution of the metallurgical industry and the area is now the home of Championship football club Swansea City A.F.C. and Welsh Rugby Union region Ospreys. Railway lines which criss-crossed
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The technologies involved in iron making had already been developed and refined, and skilled craftsmen were readily available to extend the newly developing industry. Swansea was already a town of significant size which could provide the required workforce. The growth of the industry in the Lower
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was established. By 1780 there were three copper works on the east bank of the river: White Rock, Middle and Upper Bank. On the west bank there was also one at Forest. By 1800 nine copper smelters were in production in the valley. By 1860 the lower
Swansea valley was smelting two thirds of the
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The extent and scale of the industrialisation that took place at a time when there almost no environmental controls in place created a legacy of chronic contamination of land and water by a great range of toxic and dangerous
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ships to access the river mouth. This allowed large quantities of raw materials to be brought in (allowing further profit through economies of scale) and, more importantly, the finished products, such as sheet copper,
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copper works. In 1720 the
Cambrian Works was set up near the mouth of the river and continued in production until 1745. (It reopened as a pottery in 1764.) In 1737, the White Rock copper works at
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and safe anchorage. The combination of these two factors meant that it was financially more viable to bring the ore to
Swansea's coal than take the coal to the ore. In addition, the very high
371:"Heavy metals in the waters of the Nant-y-Fendrod: change in pollution levels and dynamics associated with the redevelopment of the Lower Swansea Valley, South Wales, UK"
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which included a large lake in the course of the Nant y
Fendrod designed to help mitigate the concentrations of metals in the water. The lake itself is lined with
296:. Over the next twenty years the entire community of the area became involved in restoring the land. Redevelopment of the area provided the South Dock and
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Even in the 1980s when all the industry had long since disappeared the Nant y
Fendrod was still very seriously contaminated by copper, iron, nickel,
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was brought on ships which could sail right up to the works; and the resulting copper was exported out again the same way. Swansea became known as
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metals required more than three parts of coal to every one part of metal ore, so it was of major economic benefit to have easily available,
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the valley have now been replaced by pleasant walking and cycling paths and the River Tawe now hosts canoeists instead of copper barges.
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of considerable ability were drawn to
Swansea during this period, which in turn, promoted great innovation in the industrial processes.
91:. There were a number of reasons that favoured the great expansion of industry in this particular location. The general exploitation of
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was very poor both in the valley floor and in the nearby residential areas. A local doctor, Thomas
Williams, wrote a book called
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The only remaining working industry that can trace its roots back to the industrialisation of the Lower
Swansea valley is the
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copper ores imported to
Britain, and changes in the output and economy of the Swansea valley had a significant effect on
195:); the alum industry (based on pyrites found with coal); and the manufacture of fire-clay, which was used to line
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and the lower Tawe valley became a mass of industry. In the wake of the copper and coal industry followed
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close to the surface in the Upper Swansea valley and these were easily exploited by shallow
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Initially, the smelting works concentrated on copper. Coal was brought down to them by
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Swansea valley itself caused a great expansion in the population of Swansea and nearby
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in 1854. He described the landscape, atmosphere, and the complaints of local farmers.
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The Lower Swansea Valley Project began in the early 1960s with the aim of seeking to
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over the valleys and the nearby towns and it reasonable to suppose that
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made at the time of the boom in industrial production show a thick
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Copperopolis: landscapes of the early industrial period in Swansea
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The first copper smelter directly associated was established at
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and John Pollard. Pollard later went on to build the
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43:. It runs from approximately the level of
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424:"Mond Nickel Works, Clydach, Swansea"
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472:51.67559°N 3.91592°W
232:Environmental issues
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21:Lower Swansea valley
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131:at Swansea allowed
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239:pollutants
181:copper ore
173:waggonways
162:scientists
105:anthracite
81:River Tawe
61:innovation
37:River Tawe
463:3°54′57″W
313:limestone
213:John Lane
166:engineers
146:porcelain
39:in south
403:11669276
300:and the
283:The Mond
197:furnaces
177:tramways
138:tinplate
117:Smelting
55:and the
47:down to
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264:ammonia
209:Landore
189:pottery
99:of the
95:in the
75:History
45:Clydach
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279:nickel
203:Copper
33:valley
430:5 May
408:5 May
342:5 May
154:Neath
41:Wales
25:Welsh
432:2023
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399:PMID
344:2023
276:INCO
249:smog
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